Kick-starting urban regeneration at Mountergate Area in Norwich – an innovative multi-storey car park with a social purpose

German car park specialist HUBER car park systems international, who won the European Design & Build Tender, celebrated the inauguration of the new turnkey multi-storey in Rose Lane with Norwich City Council (NCC) on 25 May 2016.

In August 2014, NCC decided to initiate the regeneration of the Mountergate Area, an area in the immediate vicinity of Norwich city centre.  At that time most of the area was owned by the city and occupied by an at-grade car park and several abandoned buildings.  The rejuvenation was scheduled to be carried out in two phases.  Phase 1 would see the demolition of parts of the existing development after which the available space was to be developed into a multi-storey car park. Phase 2 would see the redevelopment of the surroundings into residential and small business units. In order to further remove traffic from the city centre the car park was also to serve as a hub for motorized visitors.

Car park as a modern architectural statement

It was NCC’s goal to not just park cars on multiple levels, but to develop the new site into a landmark that would signify the start of the redevelopment of an entire part of the city. Following a prequalification and tender process NCC awarded the contract to design and build the new facility to HUBER as one of three selected bidders. HUBER is one of the European leaders in the multi-storey car park construction segment.  With a background of more than 25 years in the car parking industry in Germany, HUBER has been supplying car parks to the international market since 2008.

HUBER’s very own architects designed the car park as a state-of-the-art facility and put it forward for planning permission.  Following a number of several public consultations, Norwich’s planning committee granted permission to build in January 2015.  HUBER subsequently demolished the existing buildings and carried out mandatory ground decontamination works and an archaeological assessment.  In the summer of 2015 the nine-month construction period of the new energy-efficient and sustainably built five-storey building finally started.

The building complex was split into two building units: a car park and an office building.  For technical reasons HUBER decided to keep all functions of the new buildings separate from each other.

The structure of the 595-space car park was constructed using HUBER systemized components.  Parking bays and traffic areas benefit from the clear-span composite system.  For reasons of fire safety the car park is equipped with fire walls towards the neighbouring buildings.  A special coating system protects all trafficked surfaces.  The space-efficient VCM system enables efficient and safe circulation.  Two entrance and two exit lanes are set apart from each other to avoid excessive queuing in the adjoining roads. Entrances and exits have been fitted with electrical roller shutters. All parking bays as well as the stairwells are colour-coded to ease recognition.  The parking bays are of a comfortable width and along with a number of disabled parking bays and secure bicycle lock-ups these features enhance acceptance of the car park. The car park is equipped with a high-end LED lighting solution which provides uniform illumination; there are also several E-vehicle charging stations.  A CCTV system has been added for security reasons.  An 80 kWp photovoltaic installation on top of the 530 m² roof generates more energy on a sunny day than the car park needs for itself.

NCC designated the ground floor of the office building as parking attendants’ office.  It sits right next to the car park with a large free spanning roof covering the office and parts of the car park exterior.  The ground floor offers public toilets, a baby changing facility and several pay stations.  Two elevators serve all parking levels.  The upper office floors will be marketed for lease to local companies and possibly serve as café space.

Sparkling state-of-the-art façade

The most impressive component is the extraordinary cladding that adorns both car park and office facilities.  Its design is based on the idea of creating a true corner stone; a corner stone that would relate to the height of its surrounding buildings but would also stand out with its striking architecture.  The idea of a corner stone quickly developed into a corner jewel that would sparkle from its inner core and relate to its surroundings not only at daytime but also at night. Whereas the area around Rose Lane turns into Norwich’s busy club and party scene at night, the sparkling HUBER car park with its bespoke perforation would sit right in the middle of it.

Thanks to the sophisticated illumination scheme the yellow wall elements of the office unit become visible at night.  The impressive air permeable façade is made from perforated powder coated steel panels.  Several different patterns were meticulously arranged by the architects to create an illusion of random sparkles.  As additional eye-catcher the panels were installed in varying depths to create a textured surface.

In May 2016 NCC closed their existing car park in Rose Lane and put their brand new multi-storey car park into operation. On that day the Rose Lane/Mountergate area was made available for a full urban re-development.  “Most important is the regeneration kick-start for this area of the city.  We put a lot of effort into how this relates to the surrounding area in the future, and something vibrant which makes this part of the city attractive to regeneration” said Adrian Blakey, Programme Manager for NPS Norwich, who helped deliver the project.

Norwich Evening News 25th May 2016

Dominic Gilbert:

After a £7m investment and two years in the planning, the new 595 space car park has opened on Rose Lane in the first step to boost regeneration in Mountergate.

Designed and developed by German HUBER car park systems, the project includes 530m2 of solar panels, a secure bicycle lock-up and office and cafe space.

Markus Lauble, managing director of HUBER, opened the new car park on Wednesday, describing it as the crown jewel of their work across the continent.

“It is very rare for a car park contractor to go so deep into the design,” he said. “Usually we have a building that already has planning permission and we can turn it around in six to eight months, but this has been a two-year scheme.

Concerns had been raised about traffic flows around the car park, which Mr Lauble said had been mitigated.

“One of the results of the planning process was we decided to set the entrance and exit a lot further away from each other, so there is more queuing space on the road,” he said. “There were concerns there would be queuing on Prince of Wales Road, which we have addressed with two entrance lanes at a higher capacity than we needed.”

Adrian Blakey, programme manager for NPS Norwich, who helped deliver the project, said: “Most important is the regeneration kick-start for this area of the city. We put a lot of effort in to how this relates to the surrounding area in the future, and something vibrant which makes this part of the city attractive to regeneration.

“This was something new and fresh – something that made a statement but did not detract from some of the heritage elements around.”

Mike Stonard, cabinet member for resources and income generation at Norwich City Council, said: “This shows we have confidence in the area and we are prepared to invest in infrastructure.

“In 2008 when the crash hit, all development stopped. We can’t make it happen again overnight but we can create the right conditions for it.”

Mr Stonard added city centre parking capacity is still below 10,000 spaces, but the latest addition would help mitigate the pedestrianisation of the city centre.

“Chapelfield and Castle Mall are first choice car parks, and if there is a long queue there people could pull off to Rose Lane,” he said.

Architect Mark Potter believes the car park is undergoing a renaissance.

Car park owners and operators around the world are waking up to a new potential in the estates they control. (Weiterlesen…)

Once again, the HUBER-exhibition stand was much frequented. It was the first time that HUBER car park systems international GmbH was also represented at the booth. (Weiterlesen…)

As a student in Civil Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Koblenz I, Sarah Scheidweiler, have recently been given the opportunity to engage in the work on different building sites at Huber car park systems in the UK. (Weiterlesen…)

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Hot speed at cool temperatures.
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Vanuit de train springt het bijzondere ontwerp van de gloednieuwe P+R HOOFDDORP meteen in het oog, een voorziening die mede vanuit het Actieplan Groie op het Spoor tot stand kwam.